Crimson Whirlwind
by ChaosDancer12
Summary: Kai is just a simple girl, with a simple life, if you can call being the main weapons designer for Bodhum's Guardian Corps, simple... But everything changes when the Pulse Fal'Cie in Bodhum wakes up and Kai is forced to sink or swim, in a world that fears her and her allies. Can she survive and not lose herself in the disaster waiting on the horizon or fall to pieces...
1. Prologue

Our world is divided into two. Cocoon and Gran Pulse and each side goes to war with each other, we are only chess pieces in a civil war between a race of beings known as Fal'Cie.

These beings have the ability to curse humans to become L'Cie, warriors of the Fal'Cie that can use magic and are given a Focus, those who do not complete this Focus on time become Cie'th but the ones who complete their Focus, are granted eternal life.

But like all legends, the truth behind it is covered up and cleaned up to make it look pretty...

To be a Gran Pulse L'Cie on Cocoon is a Death Sentence, Cocoon L'Cie are remembered as Heroes, even though not much is known about them.

I know that it seems weird to be thinking about this right now, but considering what is happening right now, I can't help it.

I wish that it never happened to begin with, I want to go home, back to my little apartment in the sleepy city, back to my job...

But I can't.

* * *

**Okay, so I am writing my own FFXIII story, inspired by WolfieRed23's Fate: The Last Mage.**

**And now, it is time for the Disclaimer! I do not own the Final Fanstasy Series, Final Fantasy 13, or the characters in this story. I do own Kai, although I will credit most of my inspiration for her appearance to another Final Fantasy character, can you guess who it is?**


	2. Chapter 1

There was two females in a platform within the Pulse Vestige, the first one had long pink hair that was tied on a ponytail that fell over her left shoulder with bangs that nearly reached her closed eyes. She was wearing a white sleeveless open collared dress shirt under a nearly transparent pink sweeper vest with a red and black plaid skirt that was lined with black lace. Her arms were bare apart from the black diamond patterned armband on her right bicep and a spare hairtie on her left wrist.

She was wearing black thigh-high stockings with a white diamond shaped piece of metal attached to the top of her left stocking and a pair of ivory ankle boots, the tips and the soles of the boots were brighter in colour than the rest of the boots and black laces kept the boots closed.

She was wearing a pair of cat shaped earrings and a silver necklace was around her neck, in the shape of Cocoon, their home, but the most striking feature of this girl was the angry black tattoo marking on her left arm.

But this wasn't a tattoo, it was much more horrifying then a simple tattoo, mainly because of the angry red eye in the middle of the lines and arrows.

This was a curse.

The marking of a Pulse L'Cie, the enemy of Cocoon.

This was Serah Farron, the eighteen year old sister of Lightning Farron.

The second female was the exact opposite of her, she had short black hair that had been barely pulled back into a small, spikey ponytail at the base of her neck with a red hairtie but even with the ponytail, her hair was a spikey mess. Her bangs framed her face, with the tips of her side bangs brushing against her shoulders and her closed eyes were covered with some of them. She was wearing a sleeveless crimson red leather vest with a high collar that reached her chin that was kept shut with black belts with golden buckles. She also wore a black diamond patterned armband on her right bicep with a matching one on her left bicep over a plain armband that had a twin on her right bicep, underneath the diamond one there.

She was wearing black cargo pants with pockets, tucked into a pair of knee high black combat boots with crimson red laces and flat crimson red soles and attached to her with a trio of belts; one around her waist and one around each of her thighs, was a hybrid of a brown strapless messager bag and a gun holster divided into two compartments. The first compartment was the messager bag with a black phoenix keychain hanging from the zipper, the zipper was not done all of the way, leaving a small opening that you could see tools through. The second compartment was the gun holster, which was currently occupied by a silver, two handed, three barreled shotgun.

Long, black fingerless gloves, starting from under her shoulders and ending at the area where her fingers and thumbs met her hands, covered her arms, along with a pair of baggy crimson red wristcuffs.

This was Kai Clarion, a twenty year old who was a longtime childhood friend of Serah, and her older sister Lightning.

* * *

Kai groaned as her eye lids twitched a few times before they slowly opened, revealing a set of crimson red orbs that resembled the colour of a ruby, or blood, depending on who you asked.

"What..." She asked, as she slowly sat up. "What happened?"

She got up, wincing from the various aches and cramps scattered all over her body, which would be the result of lieing down on a stone floor, after the events of earlier, which was still fresh in her mind.

The Pulse Vestige was a cold and lonely place, a maze of platforms, corridors and switches and Kai shivered since her bare face and shoulders were exposed to the cold. There was only two options to choose from if she wanted to get out of here.

She couldn't tell which direction that her current platform was facing but right now, only the east and the west side of the platform offered a possible way out.

The staircase on the east side led up to a set of doors, but they had a red marking on them that was currently pulsing and letting out light, it was shaped like a Pulse L'Cie brand.

"Well, I guess that I can't go that way." She turned around to look at the west side, only to freeze when she saw that she wasn't alone.

"SERAH!" Kai yelled, quickly kneeling down to check on her. "Come on Serah, wake up! Serah!"

She placed two of her fingers on a pulse point, sighing in relief when she felt a pulse underneath them and at that moment, Serah groaned.

"Serah?" Kai asked, feeling even more relieved when she saw the dark blue eyes of her childhood friend. "Are you okay?"

"Kai?" Serah's voice was weak and it was barely there. "What are you doing here?"

"It grabbed me when it grabbed you." Kai grabbed onto Serah's right hand, wrapping her hands around it.

Serah nodded her head but Kai was even more worried when she saw the clear signs of exhaustion in Serah's eyes. "Go back to sleep Ser." Her voice was thick and heavy with emotions. "You should save your energy when your Hero and Lightning come for us, unless you want to be a Sleeping Beauty when they get here, because they will come for us. Lightning will be mad at us for getting into trouble like this and your Hero will sweep you off of your feet and carry you home... I'll go and see if I can find them or a way out, okay?"

Serah nodded her head and she slowly started to fall asleep again. "And you too Kai..." She slowly muttered, not seeing the small glimmer of tears in Kai's eyes. "My sister will carry you home just like when we were kids..."

Kai had to hold the tears in, until Serah had really fallen asleep again but once she did, Kai was able to let them all go, bawling into her cloth covered palms. She wasn't an idiot, this was all her fault, Serah was a L'Cie because of her.

It should be her lieing here, not Serah.

She wiped her remaining tears away once she was done with her crying session and she was about to get up, when she noticed the slight trembling that was coming from Serah's body. She unbuckled her vest and she folded it up, making sure that the buckles were hidden or cushioned by the vest before she gently lifted Serah's head up and she slid it underneath so that it became a pillow for her.

Kai completely unzipped the storage compartment of her bag, pulling out her spare vest (This one had black sleeves) before she placed it over Serah as a blanket.

This may have left her in a white vest top and a bit more open to the cold, but it meant that Serah would be warm.

She shivered as she walked around Serah, heading to the other staircase but she stopped when she saw that their was no end, just a steep drop down, but there was a sign of a possible floor underneath that she could land on, but there was a possibility of a serious injury or even if she could land on it, could she really trust the floor underneath her feet, it could crumble away and she could fall to her death...

It was then, that she saw the beings on that floor.

"Nope!" Kai quickly backed up and she made her way back to Serah. "No way! I am not going that way! I am not an idiot..."

She was not going to wonder about the Pulse Vestige with those things wondering around too.

This left her and Serah with no way out. "I guess that we'll have to stay here and be damsels in distress Ser." She said, even though she had the feeling that their would be no answer from her. "You know how much I hate doing that... "

There was no laughter from Serah, she always laughed when Kai said that.

Kai sighed, they would never be able to return to the life that they lived before all of this happened, not after what had happened today...

"Lightning..." She muttered. "Where are you?"

She pulled out her shotgun, she had named her baby Cerberus, after the three headed dog that was said to guard the gates of the underworld, due to it's three barrels, and some of her tools, before she sat down and she started to ticker with her weapon.

She would do anything to prevent those dark thoughts from taking over her again and somebody had to watch Serah, she couldn't be left alone here, not again...

* * *

**The Final Fantasy character that inspired Kai's appearance was my inspiration for her weapon too!**

**And keep a eye on the fact that Kai blames herself for Serah becoming a L'Cie, that is a very important plot point for future events in this story...**

**And please, I hate begging for them, PLEASE, take some time out of your day to leave me a review, I don't care if they aren't nice ones but I really want to have some reviews for this story, please!**


	3. Chapter 2

The faint sounds of gunshots echoed throughout the Pulse Vestige, causing Kai to look up from her work. She knew those sounds. "Lightning..." She quickly put her tools back in her bag, retrieving several shotgun rounds from it before she zipped it shut.

Opening Cerberus, Kai quickly loaded the rounds in her gun, before she shut it and turned the safety off, waiting to see what was going to happen.

She didn't have to wait long to see someone, with pink hair just like Serah, appear in her line of sight, followed by a man with dark brown skin, with an afro, wearing a dark green coat over a white button up shirt with khaki trousers and back engineer boots.

_'I'll call him Afro Man!'_ Kai thought, right before Lightning yelled.

"Serah!"

She ran forwards, kneeling down and scooping Serah up in her arms, before she stood up again.

Kai frowned, of course Lightning would go for Serah first, she was her sister.

* * *

Lightning was glad to see that her sister was okay, even if she was unconscious, and she didn't miss the clothing that Serah was using as a temporary blanket and pillow.

Or the dark haired female that was shivering, with oil stains on her white vest top.

Lightning walked over and she moved Serah around a bit so that she could reach out and harshly tug at one of the spikey bangs that hung around Kai's face, bringing her back down to reality.

Kai yelped and she winced, pulling her hair free before she went to collect both of her vests, pulling the sleeveless one back on before she stuffed the sleeved one back into her bag as Lightning turned around.

"Time to go. We have to leave before the army-" She stopped when she saw the look that Sazh was giving Serah or to be more accurate, the brand on her left arm. "What?"

"That's a Pulse brand." Sazh said. "That girl's a L'Cie."

"I already took you that." She told him.

"Pulse L'Cie are the enemies of Cocoon..."

Lightning could hear the sound of a weapon about to be pulled out of a holster, she could see that Sazh was gripping the handle of one of his pistols and she started to pull back.

"So they should die?" She asked, right before she heard the click of a gun behind her and something covered in red and black stepped forwards helping to shield Serah from Sazh.

* * *

Kai tightly held onto the grip of her shotgun. "What gives you the right to decide that?!" She asked. "Serah didn't ask to become a L'Cie! What gives you the right to decide what happens to her because of something that she couldn't control?!"

"Listen, both of you, if she fails her Focus, you know how that will end..."

"I've already seen that." Kai snarled. "You can't miss them! Even if you're in a place that they can't reach, they're not quiet! I can hear them from up here!"

"And how do we know that you aren't a L'Cie too?!" He yelled back.

"You don't! Just like I don't know if you and Light are L'Cie too! Even if I've known Light since I was a kid, I don't know if she is a L'Cie until I've seen proof of it!"

"And killing her is a mercy?" Lightning asked, interrupting their argument, before a pale hand reached out for her.

"You came..."

Kai turned around at this. "Ser..." She started to lower her weapon, right before they heard someone shouting as Lightning knelt down with her sister to talk with her.

"SERAH!"

Kai turned around again to see Snow leaping off of a lift, leaving two teenagers behind. "Snow!" She yelled, putting her weapon away before she ran over to the 6'7" male who responded by quickly pulling her into a hug before pulling away to quickly check her over.

"Are you okay Kai?" He asked, Kai had been taken at the same time as Serah, it had scared him and Serah when the blackette had turned up out of nowhere and tried to help them.

"I'm okay, come on. Serah's over here!" She gently tugged at one of Snow's hands, leading the male over to his fiancée. Snow reached out to grab Serah's hand while Kai found herself inbetween Snow and Lightning and when she knelt down, she found herself looking at Serah's face, upside down.

"Is that... my hero?" Serah whispered, smiling as Snow pressed his forehead against her hand. Kai could see a pair of kids making their way to them, the reddish pink haired one had her hands over her mouth, most likely from the scene playing out in front of her, while the silver haired one looked like he was suffering from the aftermath of a shock, because of the Purge, it was the only explanation for it.

Kai hated the Purge, Serah didn't ask for that, their town shouldn't have to suffer because of what Serah had become, because...

Kai couldn't finish that thought, it was too much for her.

"Let's get you out of here." Snow said to Serah.

"Hands off, I'm taking her home." Lightning told him.

"Sis, I-"

"I'm not your sister!" Lightning yelled at him. "You couldn't protect her! It's your fault she-"

She had to step in before it got physical between Lightning and Snow, it was a bad time and a place for it, they could fight about this later.

"Lightning! Snow!" Kai yelled before she placed her hands on their shoulders, interrupting their argument. "Can we just get out of here and take Serah to a safe place before something happens to us?!" Kai removed her hands from their shoulders before she shuffled back a bit. "I just..."

"You can save us." Serah whispered, interrupting all three of them, causing them to look at her.

"Serah?" Lightning asked her sister, not understanding what she was trying to tell them.

"You can save us." Serah's voice was starting to give out on her, becoming softer. "Protect us all. Save... Cocoon."

"Save Cocoon." Lightning repeated as Serah's eyes started to close. "Serah? That was your Focus?"

"Serah..." Kai whispered through the lump that was starting to develop in her throat.

"Anything, I'll do anything." Snow told Serah. "Leave it to me, you'll see. I'll protect Cocoon! I'll save everyone!"

"Somehow, I'll make things right." Lightning told Serah.

"Yeah, we'll fix this Serah." Kai told her. "And then, we can go home together, all of us, as a family..."

Snow smiled. "You just relax."

Serah opened her eyes again to look at them. "Thank you." She whispered before she closed them again as she began to glow before she floated out of her sister's arms, up towards the ceiling.

"Serah!" Lightning yelled before she, Snow and Kai scrambled to their feet as Serah kept on floating upwards, Snow was still holding onto her hand until he had to let go.

"NO!" Kai yelled, once everyone saw the crystal that was starting to appear on Serah's arms. "Serah!" She started to try and jump up, to try and grab one of Serah's hands but there was something about the scene that made it impossible to ignore. She just stood there, watching as her childhood friend turned into crystal.

Two lights fell away from Serah, Snow caught one while Kai found herself catching the other one.

She had caught a tear made out of crystal, it was clear that due to Serah crying during the transformation had affected both of the tears, turning them into crystal before they fell from Serah.

She could feel the tears that were building up in her eyes.

"SERAH!" Snow cried and it was like a spell had been broken. "SERAH!" He started to jump in an effort to reach Serah while Lightning's hand slowly lowered itself.

Kai grabbed onto it with the hand without Serah's crystal tear in it and she gently squeezed it, causing Lightning to turn her attention to her, the soldier could see the faint shine from the tears rolling down Kai's face and she squeezed Kai's hand, before Kai let go of Lightning's hand as Serah slowly floated down to them.

"Why is she turning to crystal?" The reddish pink haired girl asked, as she slowly removed her hands from her mouth before the silver haired boy spoke up.

"L'Cie who fulfill their Focus are transformed into crystal and gain eternal life."

"Just like the stories say." The afro man nodded his head.

Kai stared at the crystal as it came to a rest in front of them.

_'Serah..' _She brought the hand with the crystal tear with it to her chest, placing it over her heart before she wrapped her other hand around it.

She cried silent tears, mourning the lost of one of her most treasured friends.

_'Serah, why? Why did it have to be you?! I'm the one who should be in your place... It should have been me!_

_Serah, I'm so sorry, please, forgive me...'_

* * *

**During the writing of this chapter, I was listening to 'Angel with a Shotgun' and 'Dreams of an Absolution' both of these songs speak to me when I think about Kai and the personality that I want to build for her throughout this adventure.**

**I also want to thank some of my friends on Discord, you guys know who you are, you wonderful people, for giving me the inspiration needed to actually finish this chapter.**


End file.
